


Change

by trascendenza



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: M/M, my holiday project 2009
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-20
Updated: 2009-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-05 13:39:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trascendenza/pseuds/trascendenza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being Human AU. <em>"Let me stay with you," Jim said, but Spock didn't reply, just walked off into the forest without looking back.</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Change

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [songfire3](http://trascendenza.dreamwidth.org/16629.html#songfire3).

"Let me stay with you," Jim said, but Spock didn't reply, just walked off into the forest without looking back.

Jim sighed and got back in the car.

*

"Do you think he'll be all right?" Nyota asked. She still worried; she could still hardly understand what had happened to her, much less what Spock went through once a month.

"He always manages," Jim said, shrugging. He picked up the latest mug of tea, still steaming, and took a sip. "Casablanca?" He said.

"I'll pop it in," she said, and it wasn't enough of a distraction, but it was better than nothing.

*

He stumbled in the next morning, covered in dirt, scratches, and even though he'd clearly tried to wash it off in muddy water, Jim could smell the traces of blood, lingering under Spock's nails, in his pores.

_You needn't bother,_ he wanted to tell Spock -- he'd catch any whiff, no matter how faint, and three weeks on the wagon had only made him more sensitive -- but he knew Spock didn't do it for him.

*

Somehow, a year passed, and for Jim it wasn't so strange. Years had a way of doing that when all you did was accumulate them. Nyota, who was visible well over ninety-five percent of the time now, baked them a cake. She curled her braided hair around her head like a crown and laughed, holding both their hands and counting down to three in a voice that sounded so alive even Jim forgot, sometimes.

Jim, after a few failed starts, had managed to stay on the wagon for six months. He drank enough bourbon that night to make up for the fact that Spock had none and pulled out _Gone With the Wind_, letting it play in the background and remind him of worse times.

Spock, if anything, had retreated deeper inside since -- well, since everything. Jim could still remember the way death smelled on Spock's hands, strange, wrong, and he wondered where Nina was, whether she'd found somewhere far enough away to forget.

*

"I had an idea," Nyota said the next day, watching Jim eat cake for breakfast.

He evaluated her expression. "Spock isn't going to like it, is he?"

She smiled. "Don't worry. He'll come round."

*

He cursed Nyota every time he had to fill out _another_ fucking form -- her brilliant plan looked much more appealing on a theoretical, non-bureaucratic level. The pen broke in his hand as his annoyance seeped through, and he threw it down.

"'Wah, wah, I'm a ghost, I can't stand in queues all day,'" he said under his breath in a bad falsetto imitation of her. He crumbled the paper and grabbed another one, imagining that hell surely couldn't be any worse than this.

*

"Home, sweet, home," Jim said, clapping Spock on the back. Spock merely said "hmm," lips pursed like he'd been sucking on a lemon.

The sex had been fantastic, sure, but fuck if Jim was ever going on vacation with Spock again. The man was a fucking audio encyclopedia with no off-switch and he didn't understand the 'cultural value' of stopping at every pub. Apparently trying to taste every lager in a given city was not a worthy goal in life, which left Jim with exactly nothing to do.

"Spock!" Nyota clapped when they came in, grinning brightly. "Oh, and hello, Jim."

"Love you too," Jim said, pecking her on the cheek.

"Thank you, Nyota. I am, however, most tired from our travels, so if you will just excuse me --"

"We can't," Nyota said. She looked at Jim. _It's done_, she mouthed.

Jim gave her a thumbs up and threw an arm around Spock's shoulders, plastering on the biggest smile he had on reserve. "Spock, buddy, let's take a little stroll in the garden, shall we?"

*

"I do not know what to say," Spock said, his eyes uncharacteristically wide.

"You're welcome," Nyota said, throwing her arms his neck and kissing him on the cheek.

"Say you'll use it," Jim said quietly. He looked at Spock and put a hand on the back of his neck. He wanted to say a hundred things -- _come home to us_ or _stop running_ \-- but he just swallowed it down and chuckled. "Seriously, if I filled out those permit forms for nothing, I'll kill you."

And Spock looked like he wanted to say something, though Jim couldn't have begun to guess what. "Well," he finally settled on, "we certainly would not your effort to go to waste."

"Full moon's in three days," Jim said, and opened the door. "Wanna check out the new digs?"

Spock gestured. "Lead the way."


End file.
